'Bengal infrastructure? It's a joke!'

If you ask me, one of the gravest problems of our state happens to be its poor infrastructure. The roads are in a miserable state. So are the government establishments. Dirt and garbage have engulfed the city (Kolkata).

The corporation is there but one just can't be sure if it works. The city water supply is as erratic as the Canada weather. Even in Kolkata, people have to walk for miles to get drinking water.

India often boasts of fast becoming the next superpower. But then how can Bengal be left to be in such a state?

With assembly election knocking at our doors, we, the aam aadmi, must raise our voice in demand for better infrastructure. Now, or never!

'Inflation is killing us; what shall we eat?'

There was a time when our state boasted of being the cheapest city of India, where the cost of living was the lowest. But now, here too, prices are going through the roof and the governments have successfully failed to give us any relief.

For the poor like me, subsistence has become a great struggle. I read in the newspaper the other day that Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee promised to counter inflation if the Left Front came to power.

I would sincerely appeal to him to do something towards that end. Else, the poor in the cities and the villages would be forced to die.

We live in a democracy, right? And it's us that bring any government to power. Therefore, isn't it the government's duty to feed its people?

While the political party candidates are campaigning across the state to make people vote for them, my plea to them would be: please squeeze out a promise from these people that life would be made easier for the poor and the marginalised.

'Healthcare? You need to be rich to be alive'

Elections will come and go, but our state will continue to languish as far as its healthcare facilities are concerned.

A few months back, a relative of mine suffered a stroke and I had to take him to a government hospital. To my utter shock, I discovered that even to get a bed in government hospital, I had to bribe.

In fact, we had to cough up money at every step of his treatment. The hospital, located in central Kolkata, had dogs and cats loitering in the corridor. The toilets were stinking and the food served for the patients was an apology of anything edible.

Before asking for votes, the politicians must first provide us the basic civil needs. What's the use of voting if one needs to be rich even to survive?

It's high time the common people raised their voices and threatened to boycott the elections if their grievances are not addressed.

'Education is in a shambles'

Education is in a shambles in the state. The ruling government just went on experimenting with the system over the years and we, the students, had to bear the brunt.

The number of engineering colleges is very low to cater to the huge number of passouts. As a result, most are forced to leave the state early in search of a better future elsewhere.

It's a pathetic state of affairs. Many tall promises are made just before the elections but those are but empty assurances, signifying nothing. Unless some drastic steps are taken to revamp the entire education system of the state, things will continue to be this bad.

Students are the future of the country but they are the most neglected lot at least in this state of ours.